Where do you get your inspiration?

[Mango]

Usually I get my inspiration from a print or painting, or a comforter. Then I work around that. There's also quite a bit you can accomplish with paint. That could change the whole look of a room. HGTV's web site has some rooms that you can look at, and I would try some decorators web sites and see their work to get some ideas and or inspiration.
The last room I did was a guest room, and I made a headboard out of fabric I had bought for another room, silk dubioni with pale greym beige and creme. But then I wanted a color statement and found a small bed throw with teal and creme in it. Eventually I found some glass prints with sand dollars suspended in them and a lamp at Pier One in the same teal blue with little silver accents. We love the room, and now hang out in there and relax. It took a while, decorating a work in progress all the time I found if you do yourself.
Have funn with it!

 

[TooFarTampa]

I've never heard of shelter magazines. I don't think I would want my home to look like a shelter.:shock:

Shelter magazines=house porn.

I have stopped buying it because it's like an addiction. I get Home Magazine now and that's it, but I really should get Southern Living and Coastal Living again. :roll:

The Better Homes & Gardens Special Interests Magazines are great, but if you buy too many of them you notice that the same homes keep showing up in different features.

I used to love HGTV, but the show selection is a little strange for me now. I adored Divine Design when it started, but find that Candice Olsen has gotten too out there for me recently. But maybe that's because she's done more midcentury modern, and I have real strong feelings against midcentury modern, which is another topic in itself. :roll:

So the point is: If you don't know what you like, go buy about four or five magazines and try to figure out what you like. That is a great place to start. Cottage style? Mid century mod? Carved and ornate? 80s ducks and geese? (you would find that in the "before" pictures. ) If you find a room you really love you can more or less copy it. You don't have to use the exact same layout, furniture, paint color, or whatever, but you can take different elements and try to reproduce them on a budget. It is funn for me. Not so much for others though.

Mermy I've got to get me a book on Feng Shui!

 

[dbuck]

I love HGTV, watch it all the time. Watching so much HGTV may be why I am having a hard time zoning in on one particular style.

In an earlier post concerning Candice Olsen, I meant to say, they NEVER tell how much was spent redecorating one of her rooms.

 

[abacomah]

I think about where I might like to be and go from there. I love the sea. You should sea ... opps I mean see my bathrooms.

There are also some cute magaziness that have beach cottages in them. So think about where, if you could be anywhere in the world ... where would it be? I know most of you will say SOWAL.

I have shells and sand dollars from the sea, yes the Gulf of Mexico on the Florida side .... little further south .... I have them glued on my walls in the bathroom.

I got some glass candle top thing a ma gigs from the craft store. You know they look like a lamp. I glued sea glass from Abaco on it. Of course if it gets too hot my glue gets mushy .... oh well.

NewfieGirl and I have gotten plain wooden picture frames from the craft store and glued shells and stuff on them. That's funnnnnnnn

Think outside the box .... it's your bedroom .... go wild 'n crazy so you can be wild 'n crazy in the bedroom:roll:

 

[Miss Kitty]

Don't ask me...I am as useless...UGH! I started redecorating almost a year ago (4 rooms) hired a designer and still am not done.

 

[Rudyjohn]

And yesterday, I finally broke down and committed to having hardwood floors installed upstairs in all the bedrooms. I'm very excited - after seeing AbacoMah's pictures of her new floors I was hell-bent on getting mine done.

I know you must be excited!! :clap_1::clap_1::clap_1: Light, dark?

 

[abacomah]

...... I finally broke down and committed to having hardwood floors installed upstairs in all the bedrooms. I'm very excited - after seeing AbacoMah's pictures of her new floors I was hell-bent on getting mine done.

I have a good contractor. Want his name?

Really I'll be glad to give my input since we just went through it. I had one guy tell me I shuoldn't consider prefinished. It won't have the same feel as putting down raw wood then finishing it.

Yeah, if I rub my hand over the hard woods on our main level that were done when we built our house in 1998 and do feel a little smoother. I do feel the lines between the wood on the pre finsihed .... but who in the heck cares???? I didn't have the mess of sanding and the smell of all that finish paint stuff. If you go with raw wood and the rooms connect you have to finish them all at the same time.

With our upstairs they did half of the upstairs. Then we moved the furniture that night (very carefully) and they finished the other half. I don't know where we would have put the furniture if we went with the raw wood. My two cents..... even though you didn't ask .

I am soooooo excited for you. Before pics please .... and then after pics. BTW we paid about $7.50 sq ft installed plus the natural finish shoe molding. Since you didn't ask that either

I usually stick my nose into things without being asked. Gets me in trouble sometimes. Johnrudy knows But what the heck, life is too short and I'll be spending a lot more time over here after today ..... yep .... slammed again:clap_1:

 

[lindatat]

I know you must be excited!! :clap_1::clap_1::clap_1: Light, dark?

I have a good contractor. Want his name?

Really I'll be glad to give my input since we just went through it. I had one guy tell me I shuoldn't consider prefinished. It won't have the same feel as putting down raw wood then finishing it.

Yeah, if I rub my hand over the hard woods on our main level that were done when we built our house in 1998 and do feel a little smoother. I do feel the lines between the wood on the pre finsihed .... but who in the heck cares???? I didn't have the mess of sanding and the smell of all that finish paint stuff. If you go with raw wood and the rooms connect you have to finish them all at the same time.

With our upstairs they did half of the upstairs. Then we moved the furniture that night (very carefully) and they finished the other half. I don't know where we would have put the furniture if we went with the raw wood. My two cents..... even though you didn't ask .

I am soooooo excited for you. Before pics please .... and then after pics. BTW we paid about $7.50 sq ft installed plus the natural finish shoe molding. Since you didn't ask that either

I usually stick my nose into things without being asked. Gets me in trouble sometimes. Johnrudy knows But what the heck, life is too short and I'll be spending a lot more time over here after today ..... yep .... slammed again:clap_1:

Yes, ladies I am excited. Decided to go with the guys that did some floors for friends of mine a few months ago. They don't even speak English so my friend's daughter's boyfriend had to come over with him when he did the quote to translate (they speak Polish.) I was going to go with a darker oak finish to match some of the other woodwork in my house, but now I am thinking to go with a lighter, more natural look. Hopefully some of the darker tones in the wood can complement the existing woodwork. Do you think that will work? They do the finishing after installation, and the fumes were awful when they did the friend's floors. But their work is beautiful. And they quoted me about $6.50 per square foot, including trim (about $1 less per square foot than my other quote which was from a neighbor, believe it or not.)

I will definitely post some before and after pics. Really hoping they can do them next weekend - but then again, I have to rip all the existing floor and trim out myself, so I might have my work cut out for me.